This invention relates generally to compacting presses and specifically to compacting presses for compacting empty 55 gallon steel drums or other containers to facilitate the recycle use of the containers' structural material. Prior art compacting presses have utilized dedicated tooling, limiting to only one size the container to be compacted, still others have utilized uniaxial compression to reduce volume in three dimensional reduction, thus requiring a mold having an inner cavity having a press fit with the compressed slug and requiring a means of removing the press fit slug from the mold cavity.